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Fourier Transform

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Fourier Transform

Planning is doing today to mak e us better tomorrow because the future belongs to those who make the hard decisions today.

—BusinessWeek

Enhancing Your Skills and Your Career

Career in Communications Systems

Communications systems apply the principles of circuit analysis. A communication system is designed to convey information from a source (the transmitter) to a destination (the receiver) via a channel (the propagation medium). Communications engineers design systems for transmitting and receiving information. The information can be in the form of voice, data, or video.

We live in the information age—ne ws, weather, sports, shopping, financial, business inventory, and other sources make information available to us almost instantly via communications systems. Some ob vious examples of communications systems are the telephone network, mobile cellular telephones, radio, cable TV, satellite TV, fax, and radar. Mobile radio, used by police and fire departments, aircraft, and various businesses is another example.

The field of communications is perhaps the fastest growing area in electrical engineering. The merging of the communications field with computer technology in recent years has led to digital data communications networks such as local area netw orks, metropolitan area netw orks, and broadband integrated services digital networks. For example, the Internet (the “information superhighway”) allows educators, business people, and others to send electronic mail from their computers w orldwide, log onto remote databases, and transfer files. The Internet has hit t he world like a tidal wave and is drastically changing the w ay people do b usiness, communicate, and get information. This trend will continue.

A communications engineer designs systems that provide high-quality information services. The systems include hardw are for generating, transmitting, and receiving information signals. Communications engineers are employed in numerous communications industries and places where com munications systems are routinely used. More and more government agencies, academic departments, and businesses are demanding faster and more accurate transmission of information. To meet these needs, communications engineers are in high demand. Therefore, the future is in communications and every electrical engineer must prepare accordingly.

Photo by Charles Alexander

Learning Objectives

By using the information and exercises in this chapter you will be able to:

    1. Define the Fourier transform and explain how to use it.
    1. Understand the properties of the Fourier transform.
    1. Know how to use the Fourier transform in the analysis of circuits.
    1. Understand Parseval’s theorem.
    1. Understand the relationship between the Laplace transform and the Fourier transform.